The Most Annoying Features in iOS 10

Every new mobile OS has some learning curves; Apple's iOS 10 is no exception.

By PC Mag ME Team PC Mag ME Team

Oct. 16, 2016, 5 p.m.

Press Home to Open

Previously, those with a Touch ID-enabled iPhone simply held their finger over the home button to unlock. With iOS 10, the default setting requires you to hold a finger over the home button and then press down on it to unlock (blame the new haptic feedback home button on the iPhone 7). Thankfully, you can disable it. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Home Button. You'll see the option "Rest Finger to Open." Toggle it to green and your iPhone will open with just a press, as it did before. This also works on iPad.

Slide to Unlock

From the beginning, iPhones have had a slide-to-unlock option, but with iOS 10, it's gone. Now, swiping right on a locked screen brings up your iOS 10 widgets. Sadly, there's no fix for this; therapists are standing by.

Email Scroll

If you use the built-in mail app on iOS 10, you might be giving your scrolling finger a bit of a workout. As you can see in the image above, the Mail app does not collapse email threads, so if you have a long-winded friend or co-worker, or the contents of previous emails below the most recent reply, you have to scroll and scroll and scroll to get to the bottom.

If you primarily use Gmail for all your email, I would suggest just downloading the Gmail app, which threads messages as it does on the desktop (see middle image). But there are a number of other iOS email apps available, too.

For those of you stuck with the Mail app, there are some things you can do to make the experience slightly less annoying. Navigate to Settings > Mail and scroll to Threading. Toggle "Most Recent Message on Top," which should prevent some scrolling headaches. You can also turn off Threading by toggling "Organize by Thread," which will display each email separately in your inbox, but that could get messy.

Screenshots

While the method for taking a screenshot (press the home and power button at the same time) hasn't changed in iOS 10, the process is slightly more sensitive (and aggravating). Perhaps you've tried to take a screenshot, only to have your screen dim and call up Siri? You're not alone. My suggestion would be to press the power button before the home button rather than the other way around. If you're fast enough, you can still press both buttons simultaneously, but linger too long on that home button, and Siri comes calling. It's unclear why this is the case, but there you go.

Raise to Wake

A number of smartphones have added always-on screens that light up to show you alerts if you pick them up or turn them over. Apple's version of this in iOS 10 is Raise to Wake. It's enabled by default and will wake up your lock screen if you pick up your phone. Personally, I found it a bit annoying; my iPhone would light up in my purse and in my hand, requiring an extra step to shut it off. Eventually, I shut it off permanently via Settings > Display & Brightness > Raise to Wake.

Messages in Landscape

As you'll see in the next slide, iOS 10 gave its messages app a big overhaul. One of the changes is a handwriting option, for more authentic messages, I guess. If you flip your phone to write in landscape mode, however, handwriting is the default setting. It makes sense—landscape mode gives you more real estate to scrawl your message. But not everyone wants to share their texts in chicken scratch, and it could be confusing for a first-time user. To switch back to the regular keyboard in landscape mode, just tap the tiny keyboard icon on the bottom right (and vice versa to return to handwriting).

Ditch Parallex Effect, Lose iMessage Features

iOS 10 comes with a number of bells and whistles within Messages, including stickers and animations. But those fun features don't quite work if you have your phone's parallex effect disabled (Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion). The parallax effect gives the apps on your home screens some motion; they seemingly shift depending on the angle at which you're holding the phone to your face. It's neat, but not if you have a weak stomach. Unfortunately, if you want snazzy iMessages, you're going to have to buy some Pepto-Bismol and turn that parallex effect back on.

Reply With Message

This one isn't so much annoying as it is a possible security issue. In iOS 10, you can long-press on a text message and reply right from the screen; no passcode or unlocking required. But if you lose your phone (or have particularly devious friends), this could be an issue. Turn it off via Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > toggle "Reply With Message" to off.